I’m delighted to report that the special host for the Robin’s reading in Philadelphia will be Duane Swierczynski. Duane not only happens to be the editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper, and is not only a fellow graduate of La Salle (I’m so much older than Duane that when I graduated from the school, it was a mere college, but since Duane’s matriculation, it’s become a frickin’ University!), but Duane is also a terrific crime novelist. I’ve read his two most recent works, The Wheel Man and The Blonde (which comes out in paperback on October 30th), and they are funny, fast-paced, inventive and no grislier than the mayhem warrants. And like Laura Lippman and Baltimore and the early Elmore Leonard and Detroit, Duane liberally incorporates Philadelphia locales into almost every scene; if you’ve ever spent time in Philadelphia (as I have–six years), you be thrilled at how vividly this helps you visualize the various brawls, burials and beheadings that Duane has conjured up.